The medical profession used to be the preserve, give or take an interloper or two, of the white middle class male. Surgeons were supposedly like Sir Lancelot Spratt, as played by James Robertson Justice, and general practitioners like Dr Cameron, as played by Andrew Cruikshank. Indeed, the exclusiveness of the medical preserve was one of the criticisms levelled at the profession as a whole by reformists. Whether white males served the population well or badly was quite beside the point: they were seen to be operating an old boys' network in order to retain their privileges.

Not for very much longer. White males, despite being 43 per cent of the population, comprise only 26 per cent of medical students. Whether you think this is a good, bad or indifferent thing depends on how seriously you take the idea that the ethnic composition of every rank in society ought exactly to coincide with the ethnic composition of society as a whole. Should you or shouldn't you worry about the fact that there are no professional footballers of Indian subcontinental origin, or that there are so few Chinese prisoners in our jails?

Irrespective of whether it matters, what accounts for the forthcoming decline in the numerical, and no doubt intellectual, predominance of white males in the British medical profession?

There are two possible explanations, which are not mutually incompatible. The first is the decline in academic performance, relative to other groups, of young white males. If places in medical schools are allocated strictly according to examination results, then any such decline would be reflected in their numbers in the student body. And it is certainly possible that the young white male subculture in this country is not conducive to concerted academic effort. Studiousness is not, after all, among the principal characteristics of the new laddishness. The children of several (though not by any means all) ethnic minorities, as well as girls, strive harder at school, and therefore succeed better, than the young white males.

There is also the possibility that medicine as a profession is a less attractive career than it once was. Certainly, the number of applications for each place at medical school is falling, which would suggest that such is the case. Clever, diligent white males, who once might have become doctors, prefer to do something else. The relative loss of white males is actually a sign of the decreasing prestige of medicine as a career.

Certainly, this decrease is a trend that successive governments have tried to encourage: and, unlike most government efforts, it seems to have achieved its aim. Governments are afraid of doctors, because they are held in high esteem by the public, and they might at some time seriously oppose the government. If the government cannot improve the health service, it can at least destroy the medical profession, which is the next best thing from its slightly peculiar standpoint.

Patients have therefore been encouraged officially to regard themselves as customers or consumers, rather than as people seeking advice and help from trusted professionals. And more and more, doctors are expected not to think for themselves and do what they think is right, as members of true learned professions should, but to act as part of the conveyor belt delivering central government policy to the population. They are technical clerks.

Not only are the financial rewards of medicine declining compared with other jobs, but the risks for doctors are growing ever greater. The public is litigious; the regulatory bodies are ever more bureaucratically intrusive and demanding; even the Crown Prosecution Service is adding its mite by insisting on prosecuting doctors more frequently than ever before for criminal negligence. Above all, doctors are increasingly beholden to bureaucrats, who are often their intellectual and moral inferiors.

Who wants to go through a lengthy and arduous training (though, further to reduce the prestige of the profession, the Government is trying to reduce the length and thoroughness of British medical education), only to find that he or she is simultaneously disrespected by the patients, the administrators and the Government, and subject to permanently mistrustful regulatory bodies of doubtful integrity? No wonder an ever larger proportion of the doctors in this country wish they had never gone into medicine in the first place, or fail to practise it once they have qualified, treating their medical degrees as people once treated their degrees in philosophy, history or literature as a sign of general intellectual competence rather than as the beginning of a career in the subject. While our doctors drop out, of course, doctors from poor foreign countries drop in. This is our ethical foreign policy.

No doubt those who see the whole of history as a tale of oppression by dead white males, from Plato to Ronald Reagan, will rejoice at or applaud the demise of the socially prominent white male doctor. But even they, when they are ill, will want their doctors to be as good as possible. There is nothing quite like serious illness, after all, for unmasking the frivolity of ideology. And if the social prestige of medicine is destroyed, it is quite likely that its quality will follow shortly afterwards. It is not that white males necessarily make the best doctors, of course; but if we don't want to be doctors, then you are in trouble.

I am not quite sure the increase in the percentage or Indian doctors in Britain represents a decline in quality, and the author does not present any evidence that it does. The dirty little secret is that there are more avenues for success and renown then their used to be. In 1800, the upper middle class consisted of doctors, lawyers, and preachers, with a few odd others. Today, we have about a hundred more choices, and medicine is more and more by the drug prescription numbers. Many docs I know admit privately to me, that they are as bored as hell.

Remember the US Supreme Court case where Allan Bakke protested being passed over for an incompetent black student at a med school all in the name of 'affirmative action'?

Bakke went on to get his medical degree elsewhere and is a successful and respected doctor.

The pillar of Afro-American society who took Bakke's rightful place just because he was black?

He went on to kill several of his patients, lost his medical license, and is now a long-term 'guest' of the State of California Department of Corrections.

The lie of affirmative action is found out in any profession where the answers are absolute, such as the sciences and disciplines. This is why a disproportianate number of affirmative action beneficiaries seek out subjective careers in teaching, government, and journalism where their incompetence is easily shielded from scrutiny.

Am I a (gasp!) racist for saying this? Not at all.

Compared to Bill Cosby and Chris Rock I think I'm quite fair on this subject.

5
posted on 09/05/2004 4:30:25 PM PDT
by PeterFinn
("John Kerry is a flip-flopper and a phony" - Howell Raines quoted in the Wash. Post)

Nonsense. Maybe true for blacks or hispanics. Not true for Indians, and this article is about Indians and other South Asians. When I was in training, I (an Indian) was treated just like other white persons by the administration whereas hispanics got preferntial treatment in admissions, loans, awards, etc.

Even the FDA does not consider Indians as a separate ethnic minortiy - we are genetically considered as caucasians.

7
posted on 09/05/2004 4:32:45 PM PDT
by razoroccam
(Then in the name of Allah, they will let loose the Germs of War (http://www.booksurge.com))

"What's true for England isn't necessarily true for the US(thank God) - take a look at your local hospital's surgical team and you'll see that WASPs still dominate."

And why would that be an issue if they dominated or not? I just want to know, is the WASP doctor going to be a good doctor or a bad doctor. He can be an Arab with the last name "Bin Laden" and reek of gunpowder, I just want to know if he would take good care of me.

8
posted on 09/05/2004 4:36:35 PM PDT
by TypeZoNegative
(Isn't it ironic that the spleen, most useless organ in our body is also on the left side of our body)

Women are stupider than men eh? Maybe that is why a majorityh of law school graduates are now women. Maybe that is why women score higher than men on tests, including, although I am not sure, even in math.

I don't think the author considered the Indian and Pakistani docs "of color" he was seeing as "white." Unless of course, Britain is flooded with Chinese, Indonesian, or Nigerian docs or something. That must be it.

Women are not less capable than men...however, it is undisputed that they do not work as many hours, nor as long as male physicians. The number is something on the order of 60% of the hours worked by male physicians over their career...So you have to graduate nearly 2 females for every male to get the same production numbers. Twenty years from now, the piper will be paid for this "equality" experiment. Access will be a problem for many of the more demanding subspecialties!

I don't think this has to do with Affirmative Action...AA in admissions has the greatest impact on Asians, as its abolition in California showed. This article almost seems to advocate a movement towards recuiting or admitting more white male doctors.

Women in a capitalist economy make on average 70 cents for every dollar a man makes. This is not a conspiracy, this is market forces assigning value. Note that this does not apply to government jobs.

As with all generalizations there are huge numbers of exceptions. My wife is much smarter and makes more money than me and her head is larger and heavier, especially the lower back side. From other smart women I have known there is some relationship between brain size and brains.

I will only see a Caucasian or Asian doctor. Any other "doctors" are off limits for us. They got in there for all the WRONG reasons. Caucasian and Asian are stuck with MERIT as the criteria and that suits us.

My doctor is from India, and he is more caring and consientious than any "white" doctor I've ever been to. He also doesn't play golf, drink, abuse prescription drugs, chase women, take long frequent vacations, or any of theother extacurricular activities doctors are known for.

20
posted on 09/05/2004 5:03:12 PM PDT
by ozzymandus
("So it is written, so it shall be danced"-Al Bundy)

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